Monk: fists useless?

[Theinvoker]

i'm tryng the monk. i like that he can attack 2 times every turn (if he has nothing else to to as bonus action) but i can't find unarmed combat useful at all.
Staves does 1d8 damage
Fists does 1d4 and then 1d6. Maybe they will become 1d8 later, BUT....can they be magical too?? Staves can be +1 or +2
I found gloves that gives 1d4 bonus fire damage to unarmed combat...nice but i already have the same buff on a staff and i can use gloves that gives +2 to CA

Is there something i'm missing. is it unarmed combat weak and useless?
if i remember well, in BG2 fists becomes magical after some levels, plus even if the damage was not hight, i had more attacks per turn compared to if i was using a weapon.

[dr46onfusion]

You kinda need spells to mix with it, like Hex which when used on a target causes an attacker's hit to also deal additional damage PER hit.

[Elizadeath]

1d4 + 3 + 1d4 + 3 + 1d4 + 3 is three attacks with 17 dex. thats 9+ 3d4, which is substantially more than 1d10 which you get for a firebolt, or 1d12+ 3 from a greataxe. this situation scales pretty well with items. seems fine in the game, esp with tavern brawler

[Quelsec]

yes fists get to be magical

[Amateur Nitpicker]

My Monk is subclass "way of the hand"

it has passives to make you fist magic (you need to click and toggle them though)
Manifestation of Body - Necrotic damage
Manifestation of Soul - Radiant Damage
Manifestation of Mind - Psychic damage

[Zarquon]

later on fists are better. your unarmed attacks do +1d6 damage of your choice out of 3. then there are many items to add more damage to unarmed attacks. But stick with a staff until fists are better. Much later open hand monks get resonating blast which is great. +9d6 damage in a 17ft aoe for no action cost and only 1 ki point

[Mijj]

To the OP, the damage increases with levels, you can check the different weapons in the game, it increases all "monk weapon" (i don't know how it's implemented in the game) but for example you can see that a dagger can deal 1d8 damage instead of 1d4 because your fist damage increased.

I would have an answer to about the fight with unarmed weapon with the monk, what's the point, because it seems fighting with a weapon gives more bonus...

[The Vagrant Knight]

I honestly think fists might be kinda broken due to there being class effects + loads of items adding effects and extra damage to unarmed specifically + tavern brawler trait.

Then again, I didn't play monk so I didn't put these to use. Just an observation.

[Simbolic]

Found alot of gear to compliment a monk build in act one.

[Lur Nen Rue]

ye tavern turn fist into huge damage later on the game

but even if you don't go into str monk druerger can enlarge and make fist more useful early game, until you get on hit to goes with flurry , 4 element monk has fire fist 1d4 fire for one turn after using it, psionic overload, paladin buff etc

[wolfsmile1966]

actually once you hit a certain level your fists are considered [ magical dmg ] oh and around act 2 the monk is a destroyer if built right

[wolfsmile1966]

magical^

[Pitty Sensual]

Monk put the game in Easy mode, look at that unnarmed atk lol mine had 20 AC, 4 atks per turn and just miss if he rolled 1 lol

https://steamuserimages-a.akamaihd.net/ugc/2031739060236712587/CF9037D1D8BB6FACD2A713ED755FDB2BE1C45C99/?imw=5000&imh=5000&ima=fit&impolicy=Letterbox&imcolor=%23000000&letterbox=false

[Mijj]

Originally posted by Quelsec:

The answer here would be style and tavern brawler feat.

So you recommend to build a STR monk instead of DEX to play with this feat? What about AC?

[Sombrero]

Fists are fine the only downside is that you miss on some potentially cool weapon effects. There's quite a few Quarterstaves that synergize extremely well with Monks from the very start of the game. I had a really hard time not playing with staves on my run I just forced myself at the end not to use any just to see the difference and I missed my staff in the end more than anything. But I wasn't playing with Tavern Brawler sooooo that might change everything.

[The Vagrant Knight]

Originally posted by Pitty Sensual:

Monk put the game in Easy mode, look at that unnarmed atk lol

https://steamuserimages-a.akamaihd.net/ugc/2031739060236712587/CF9037D1D8BB6FACD2A713ED755FDB2BE1C45C99/?imw=5000&imh=5000&ima=fit&impolicy=Letterbox&imcolor=%23000000&letterbox=false

jesus, that's just one hit?! I figured when I saw all those unarmed items it would be broken, but that's just nuts.

Doesn't monk get 6 hits a turn if you take 3 in rogue?